The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 600 pages of information about The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs.
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The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 600 pages of information about The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs.

    But Sigurd spake:  “Hail father!  I am girt with the fateful sword
    And my face is set to the highway, and I come for thy latest word.”

    Said Gripir:  “What wouldst thou hearken ere we sit and drink the wine?”

    “Thy word and the Norns’,” said Sigurd, “but never a word of mine.”

    “What sights wouldst thou see,” said Gripir, “ere mine hand shall take
      thine hand?”

    “As the Gods would I see,” said Sigurd, “though Death light up the
      land.”

    “What hope wouldst thou hope, O Sigurd, ere we kiss, we twain, and
      depart?”

    “Thy hope and the Gods’,” said Sigurd, “though the grief lie hard on
      my heart.”

    Nought answered the ancient wise-one, and not a whit had he stirred
    Since the clash of Sigurd’s raiment in his mountain-hall he heard;
    But the ball that imaged the earth was set in his hand grown old;
    And belike it was to his vision, as the wide-world’s ocean rolled,
    And the forests waved with the wind, and the corn was gay with the
      lark,
    And the gold in its nether places grew up in the dusk and the dark,
    And its children built and departed, and its King-folk conquered and
      went,
    As over the crystal image his all-wise face was bent: 
    For all his desire was dead, and he lived as a God shall live,
    Whom the prayers of the world hath forgotten, and to whom no hand may
      give.

    But there stood the mighty Volsung, and leaned on the hidden Wrath;
    As the earliest sun’s uprising o’er the sea-plain draws a path
    Whereby men sail to the Eastward and the dawn of another day,
    So the image of King Sigurd on the gleaming pavement lay.

    Then great in the hall fair-pillared the voice of Gripir arose,
    And it ran through the glimmering house-ways, and forth to the sunny
      close;
    There mid the birds’ rejoicing went the voice of an o’er-wise King
    Like a wind of midmost winter come back to talk with spring.

    But the voice cried:  “Sigurd, Sigurd!  O great, O early born! 
    O hope of the Kings first fashioned!  O blossom of the morn! 
    Short day and long remembrance, fair summer of the North! 
    One day shall the worn world wonder how first thou wentest forth!

    “Arise, O Sigurd, Sigurd!  In the night arise and go,
    Thou shalt smite when the day-dawn glimmers through the folds of
      God-home’s foe: 

    “There the child in the noon-tide smiteth; the young King rendeth
      apart,
    The old guile by the guile encompassed, the heart made wise by the
      heart.

    “Bind the red rings, O Sigurd; bind up to cast abroad! 
    That the earth may laugh before thee rejoiced by the Waters’ Hoard.

    “Ride on, O Sigurd, Sigurd! for God’s word goes forth on the wind,
    And he speaketh not twice over; nor shall they loose that bind: 
    But the Day and the Day shall loosen, and the Day shall awake and
      arise,
    And the Day shall rejoice with the Dawning, and the wise heart learn
      of the wise.

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The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.